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Published on 08/14/1995 All articles from this issue

Rethinking law enforcement in Los Altos Hills

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Los Altos Hills is not exactly a hotbed of criminal activity. Yet it costs the town of roughly 8,000 residents approximately $500,000 a year for law enforcement.

Granted, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office covers 99 miles of winding roads and hard-to-find residences. But the question must be asked: Is the town getting the best bang for its buck?

The latest development with the Sheriff's Office demanding upfront money for the building of a new substation intensifies that question. Can Los Altos Hills, which already spends nearly 50 percent of its budget on law enforcement, afford another $160,000 in upfront costs to support the Sheriff's Office expansion?

Sheriff's personnel already appear to be backing off their proposed substation after losing a contract with Monte Sereno to Los Gatos police. So whether Los Altos Hills will actually have to pay the upfront cost at all is still open to discussion.

However, the situation allows us an opportunity to take another hard look at the town's contract with the Sheriff's Office. Can another agency, say the City of Los Altos' police department, do a better job at less cost?

Los Altos Hills City Council may ask Los Altos to submit a proposal within the next few months that may answer that question. Los Altos police have been coy about coming right out and saying it, but they've implied that the department could provide at least the same level of service, with possibly better response time, than the county does now. Logistically this makes sense, because Los Altos is situated closer to Los Altos Hills than Sheriff's personnel coming from Saratoga. And there have been complaints about officers taking as long as half an hour to answer calls in Los Altos Hills.

The current contract calls for 18 hours of service, with sheriff's patrols rotating through Los Altos Hills from the Saratoga substation. In the six remaining hours, however, officers must answer calls coming all the way from Saratoga.

There are many questions yet to be answered, but it looks to us like both Los Altos, in the form of a bigger budget, and Los Altos Hills could both benefit from a contract awarded to our police department.